Tuesday - September 26, 2023
Once Again, The One And Only Post
September 26, 2023
I need to sit down and rest a bit. So it’s a good excuse to post a little something. Or, from our perspective, more than a little something!
Our home improvement project is finished!
Yep, it took just two weeks shy of a YEAR. But it’s all done, and passed all the final code inspections. Contractor is coming back in a day or two ... whenever it finally stops raining!! ... and taking a load of mess to the dump. Then we pay him off, and we won’t see him again for half a year. Which is when we’ll floor the two bedrooms, the living room, and convert the tinfoil fireplace to a nice size high ceiling closet. We need every foot of storage space we can get.
In the meantime, we have to bear down mercilessly and throw out a giant bunch of stuff. Probably about half our possessions, including furniture. It’s just too much, and we’re bursting at the seams here.
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And for added fun, the cats now have fleas
We will never know if they came from our contractor, who is a messy kind of guy, who’s girlfriend had a major flea infestation at her place about 2 months ago which took a couple flea bombs and then a professional bug exterminator to cure, and then his little old dog got them at his place, either from her/him, or from all the wild animals he feeds out on his deck at his lonely little house in the woods.
OTOH, they could come from the Wild Kingdom right outside our door, living here on the edge of “the freakin jungle” as her urban sister puts it. Every stray cat - at least 8 of them - every fox, every raccoon, every skunk, all the squirrels and chipmunks, the deer, etc ... all either come right up on our patio to peek in the windows or they walk right through our gardens. And this is said to be a very bad year for fleas around here. All those creatures have fleas, and they’re all the same kind; what we think of as cat fleas. Dogs get them too. Actual dog fleas are only found in Europe. American cat fleas are very versatile and will suck anything with hair. So that rules me out, woo hoo.
We gave both our cats the ampules of the Advantage II flea product. You just squeeze on the base of the back of their heads, and in a few hours the fleas start dying. Takes care of the eggs too. Lasts a month, so we have two treatments per cat. We also got a potent carpet and furniture flea spray and are using it copiously. Which means we’ve had to air this place out one room at a time, displacing the cats from their accustomed naps spots. Too bad. And we’re going over both cats several times a day with the flea comb. And vacuuming and washing everything in sight and drying it on the Kill setting. So any flea dirt will wash off, any fleas will drown, and anything left will get baked in the dryer.
So far so good. The first night we took dozens of the little bastards off each cat. Maybe a dozen from one of them the next day. Only about 6 total so far today. And I’m on the 5th load of laundry. When things dry out outside I’m getting a couple big cans of outdoor bug spray and hitting all the doors, windows, and the patio too. We will beat this.
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September 22, 2023
Still breathing. Still healing. Got my ankle brace adjusted today and some more training on using it properly. Wore it for 12 hours. Tendons feel better.
Bowling with an inflamed and painful ankle is counterproductive. Still, we managed to win 5 on old guy’s league.
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The Anti-Communist Manifesto?
I picked up a copy of Mark Levin’s new book, The Democrat Party Hates America!. I’m about a quarter through it, and it’s only told me one or two tidbits from history that I didn’t know. But I do pay attention to this kind of thing, and I long ago knew the commies were making inroads , even with the hippies of the 60s. Yes, there probably are a huge number of normal people who identify as Democrats. But the core of the party long ago became straight up commies. You know this is true. Just turn on the news and watch the goosestep towards absolute totalitarianism trample your rights, beliefs, and culture even further.
If it is widely enough read, and I predict that it will be a runaway best-seller, the book will change the way the public understands one of our two major political parties, forever tainting the Democrats for the racism, hypocrisy, lack of principle, and sheer ruthless pursuit of power at any cost that have permeated their party throughout its history.
[ The book was #1 at Amazon before it was even released. One reason for this is that conservatives buy books, while liberals watch short videos online telling them what the book was about and how wrong it is. ]
Levin goes back in history, and I haven’t got to the real deep part of the book yet, but I wonder if he will see what I realized a very long time ago. This book isn’t tainting them. They’ve always been this way, and it’s always been visible if you knew how to look.
The Democrat viewpoint came up out of the South. That pre Civil war landed aristocracy thing ... which wasn’t new then. I’m pretty sure that the “3/5 compromise” built into our Constitution was a ploy by proto-Democrats pursuing excessive power. And they weren’t going to play ... sign on to being part of the new Union ... take their marbles and go home ... hold their breath until they turned blue ... secede before even joining ... unless they got their way. And how many times did they play that trick from 1783 to 1860? Many. Threats of secession, nullification, and so on. This is nothing new.
It wasn’t new in 1860. It wasn’t new when they found Marx at some point in the later 19th Century and with it a playbook for the ages.
It wasn’t new when Wilson was openly racist progressive. It wasn’t new when Teddy Roosevelt bought into early Progressivism either, a decade or more before Wilson. But years later, even under FDR and his pal Uncle Joe (Stalin) supported by the NY Times (commie fish wrap then too) and a compliant media, pushed their New Deal (Socialism) with it’s underlying racism (betcha didn’t know that bit!). So this has been coming a long long long time. A Long March power grab, lasting at least 130 years so far.
And it’s straight up communism, with all the evil, death, corruption, and stagnation that entails. They. Don’t. Care. Because they believe they’ll be set up like godlings at the top of the pyramid. And you’ll eat bugs.
Because power is all that matters to them, and all that has ever mattered to them. A rigged game, top to bottom. Always.
So I’m hoping for some fresh insights deep in Levin’s book. But I’m jaded, and I’ve been watching this most of my life. For those who haven’t had this awareness, or who think somehow “but Communism was just a Red herring”, then it could be an avalanche of awakening.
It’s worth a read. And then pass it on for someone else to read. But remember the talking points.
We are going to have a revolution or we are going to become serfs. This is coming. It is unavoidable. The death count will be astronomical.
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September 18, 2023
Learning the hard way about Walmart Watchbirds
Aside from the hypocrisy in this picture ( found at The View From Lady Lake )
We found out the other day that each one of these self-check stations has an overhead video camera and is hooked into the scales that are on the checkout and in the bagging area. See that little blob on the stalk over the register? That’s the camera.
Wifely and I were picking up a couple quick things. We had one reusable shopping bag. Some items we got were light and soft, a couple were big and heavy. They didn’t come out of the cart in the order we wanted to put them in the bag. ( As a 14 year veteran of working in grocery stores in my youth, I am the world’s greatest bagger. I also have the lifetime reflex of saving dropped items with my leg before they hit the ground which I call grocery foot. ). So she held onto one scanned item while I scanned the next item that would go in the bag. And this set off the silent alarm. Clerk comes over, sees the situation on the video review, enters the passkey, and we were good to go.
It never crossed our minds that there would be a camera and a complex weighing algorithm built into these things. But there are. So now you know. And I now also know that the bird’s eye view of me is an odd sight.
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September 15, 2023
Somehow 2 or 3 posts have evaporated. Hmmph.
Evil Bladder Snake Removed, Pain and Blood Almost Gone
I had this 11” long spring tube inside me for 8 days. Insanely uncomfortable. One end in my kidney holding open the end of the ureter, the other end pushing against my prostate. Almost no control over my bladder, leakage, lots of blood, having 5 seconds warning that I needed to go RIGHT NOW every 5 or 10 minutes. And every time I did, the back flow caused a kidney pain like getting hit in the back with a shovel. Yeah, no fun whatsoever. Lived on ibuprofen. No secondary infection that I’m aware of, but the stress or pain or my bodies reaction to the surgery caused my arthritis to flare up. Started to lose balance the last days too. Pain and sleep deprivation made my mind fuzzy. The one minute removal procedure took 6 minutes but I managed. And the improvement was major and immediate. First good night’s sleep in 9 days. Happy happy camper, but still kind of tired.
But at least I learned another new word. Learned it the hard way. Dysuria. Painful urination. Yeah, but the definition doesn’t describe the intensity. Somewhere between ground glass shards, a rusty saw blade, and barbed wire.
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September 11, 2023
As if you need reminding
&nbps; 
At 8:46:40am the first plane hit the World Trade Center, but things started happening long before that. MSN has a timeline that goes back years
Commemorations stretch from the attack sites — at New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania — to Alaska and beyond. President Joe Biden is due at a ceremony on a military base in Anchorage.
His visit, en route to Washington, D.C., from a trip to India and Vietnam, is a reminder that the impact of 9/11 was felt in every corner of the nation, however remote. The hijacked plane attacks claimed nearly 3,000 lives and reshaped American foreign policy and domestic fears.
On that day, “we were one country, one nation, one people, just like it should be. That was the feeling — that everyone came together and did what we could, where we were at, to try to help,” said Eddie Ferguson, the fire-rescue chief in Virginia’s Goochland County.
It’s more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the Pentagon and more than three times as far from New York. But a sense of connection is enshrined in a local memorial incorporating steel from the World Trade Center’s destroyed twin towers.
The predominantly rural county of 25,000 people holds not just one but two anniversary commemorations: a morning service focused on first responders and an evening ceremony honoring all the victims.
Other communities across the country pay tribute with moments of silence, tolling bells, candlelight vigils and other activities. In Columbus, Indiana, 911 dispatchers broadcast a remembrance message to police, fire and EMS radios throughout the 50,000-person city, which also holds a public memorial ceremony.
Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts raise and lower the flag at a commemoration in Fenton, Missouri, where a “Heroes Memorial” includes a piece of World Trade Center steel and a plaque honoring 9/11 victim Jessica Leigh Sachs. Some of her relatives live in the St. Louis suburb of 4,000 residents.
“We’re just a little bitty community,” said Mayor Joe Maurath, but “it’s important for us to continue to remember these events. Not just 9/11, but all of the events that make us free.”
New Jersey’s Monmouth County, which was home to some 9/11 victims, made Sept. 11 a holiday this year for county employees so they could attend commemorations.
As another way of marking the anniversary, many Americans do volunteer work on what Congress has designated both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.
On the morning of Sept. 11, United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 11 departed from Boston en route to California before hijackers crashed them into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon, while passengers attempted to overtake United Airlines Flight 93 from hijackers before it crash-landed in Pennsylvania.
The remains of the World Trade Center stand amid other debris Sept. 11, 2001, following the terrorist attack on the buildings in New York.
How many people died in 9/11?The 9/11 attacks left 2,977 dead across New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania, according to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. That total includes the 2,753 who died after the planes struck the Twin Towers, 184 people at the Pentagon and 40 people who died when Flight 93 crash-landed in Pennsylvania.
The youngest flight passenger who died was Christine Hanson, a 2-year-old on her way to Disneyland on United Airlines Flight 175. The oldest was Robert Norton, 82, who was on American Airlines Flight 11.
The 19 hijackers from the militant Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda also died.
They were not extremists. They were muslims. This is what islam is, and has always been. It is not a religion, but a theological tyranny bent on world domination. And you are the target. Forever. “Let’s roll” is not a trite phrase. It is a command, a worldview. Just because China is now a bigger economic enemy than the active agents from sandland doesn’t mean they are no longer an enemy.
Never forgive, never forget, never slack off. Is this keeping hate alive? No, it’s recognizing that an endless battle continues, and the only victory will come from annihilation of the other side.
Meanwhile, lunatic policies have done more to remove our freedoms, waste our money, and destroy our nation than any filthy raghead camel fuckers with box cutters or suicide bombs could ever do. Our leaders were afraid to fight effectively, afraid to actually win. And here we are today. Hey, raise that Pride Flag, hate yourself, your race, your gender, your history, and kowtow to the illiterate crazies. Ann Coulter was right, both about indoor plumbing and force converting their few survivors to Christianity.
“Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don’t hate America like liberals do. They don’t have the energy. If they had that much energy, they’d have indoor plumbing by now,”
‘Invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity’
The national anger was almost immediately muted by government and the MSM. President Bush was castigated for labeling our call to arms against pisslamic jihad a Crusade. Leftists across the country indulged in navel gazing trying to understand how this was our fault. Various loonies hatched conspiracy theories claiming it was an inside job, a false flag, a secret act by zionists. “First time fire ever melted steel!” was the moronic view of one well known obese dope. Within a couple years commiehomo Obama had dumbed it down to a tree planting ceremony. The cowardly media wanted us to believe that the Global War On Terror was over once OBL had been taken out. Not a chance.
Most of us know who the enemy is, was, and will always be, from 9/11 back through our entire history to the shores of Tripoli. After a 20 year effort against these 7th Century malcontents, the bottom line was a zero sum game. They’re still out there, but laying low for now. And look at all the freedoms we have lost, while the government has let no crisis go to waste and created an utterly corrupt Orwellian security state more focused on silencing Obama’s “enemies” (that’s you, you deplorable clinger) than actively eliminating actual enemies within and without. Assholes. But hey, blame Trump and Climate Change.
We have lost our way, and we long ago lost our souls. That’s what you need to remember about 9/10, the day before.
Meanwhile meanwhile, how is it that these scum are still alive? And awaiting trial? WTF.
A Plea Deal To Spare The Lives of 9/11 Masterminds
WASHINGTON − A full two decades after their capture, the U.S. military commission “Trial of the Century” against the five accused leaders of the 9/11 attacks appeared finally back on track earlier this year.Then came another delay in pre-trial hearings this past July. And in August, a bombshell: The Department of Defense disclosed that prosecutors in its Office of Military Commissions are considering a plea deal to spare the lives of self-admitted plot mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged accomplices in exchange for admissions of guilt in the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people 22 years ago today.
Take them outside and drown them in pig’s blood. Get it done.
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September 07, 2023
Ok. I made it through surgery, through recovery, and got home. Then the anesthetic wore off and I spent the rest of the day in pretty major pain, while urinating blood. Eventually the ibuprofen kicked in a bit, and all the glasses of water I was drinking did their thing, and the red flow took on a yellow tinge. But it still hurt like ragged knives until I started passing solids ... coagulated blood, tissue, whatever. That was extremely painful to do, but after that things were somewhat back to normal. Somewhat. I was awake most of the night, feeling like I needed to go about every 5-10 minutes . all for a reddish dribble or a couple drops. My back is really sore too. So around dawn I took my various medicine inhalers, some new pain killers and got up. Having a little coffee now, will probably spend the day in bed, or at least very near to a toilet.
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September 05, 2023
My kidney surgery is tomorrow morning, so I’m getting my affairs in order, just in case. I’m pretty confident that things will go well, but I don’t like hospitals and I’m a little scared. It’s day surgery so I should be home by late afternoon, but I don’t know how fuzzy I’ll be from the anesthetic. I’ll post as soon as I can.
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This is just a test post.
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September 02, 2023
SMASH! CRUNCH! POW!
I was stopped at the light in town and some petite young woman decided to use my car as brakes for her Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab. Didn’t hear any skid, no rubber streaks on the road. She just drove right into me. My foot was on the brake, so I wasn’t bounced into the car ahead of me. No injuries. She gets out and is all “I’m so sorry! This totally my fault! I can barely see over the steering wheel, and with the giant hood I have no idea where the front of my truck is!!” Gosh, so glad you’re riding around in a ton brick of death you can’t see out of or control.
It was just a thing, nobody all angry or upset. We spent 15 minutes at the intersection, exchanging insurance cards and license numbers and stuff. I did not immediately think to call the police, but I assumed one would cruise by, especially since the accident happened right across the corner from the police station. But as luck would have it, not a one. So after we got each other’s data, I went across and knocked on the PD door. No answer. Knock a few more times, then call the non-emergency number written on the door, once I deciphered the Spanish. And then Officer Barney opens the door, so I went in and filed a report. So now I have to do all the insurance stuff, most of which I did online. The car is driveable although the trunk is mashed and no longer latches. So I used some steel foil HVAC tape to tape things together, which should work real well.
I didn’t get upset until the next morning, and now I’m wondering if the vehicle is a write-off, “totaled” if the repair cost is more than it’s 7 year old book value. Damn, I loved that car. Just under 50,000 miles, and still pretty much in showroom condition. And I go in for kidney surgery Wednesday morning, so it’s going to be a few weeks before I can even schedule an appointment with the appraiser. Guess I’ll have to line up a rental car, as I’m sure that will take a couple days.
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In other personal news, I’ve got nearly all the backsplash tile sealed, and the contractor wasted most of a day painting and priming the wrong set of closet bi-fold doors. Measure twice, work once? Not him. Communicate, ask a question? Oh no. Just have at it. Heck we didn’t even know he was there, as he was working in the garage and the parking lot. He didn’t even knock on the door or send a text. Iteration 3,192 of this guy just bulling ahead without thinking. So glad we’re slowly getting closer to having this phase of the work finished. Some day. Please.
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August 30, 2023
Gosh, a whole week without a post. I’m sorry. Things have been rather busy for me lately.
I’m running around from doctor to doctor to get checkups and pre-surgical approval. The idea makes sense, but it seems like a lot of CYA to me. I didn’t go through any of this when I had my hernia operation 24 years ago. Times change. Today I have to go to the pulmonologist. I haven’t been there in years, foolish me. But I didn’t get a good vibe from the doctor I dealt with back then, so I stopped going. The practice has expanded and they have a whole new team of doctors, so let’s hope it’s better. I have no idea how long I’ll be there; I’ll take my BiPAP machine so they can read the history on the chip, perhaps adjust it a bit, and write me a prescription for a new one. The one I have is at least 9 years old, discontinued in 2017, and the device is part of the Respironics recall. So a new one is in order I guess.
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The LVP flooring is complete in the middle level of our unit. It’s lovely, and nearly all the little issues have been solved. I’ve got a nice coat of sealer on 2/3 of the backsplash tiles. I did them out under the back eve on an old table on sawhorses, with layers of cardboard and plastic under them. Nothing sticking so far. I’d like to get a second coat of sealer on them before they go up on the wall, but the weather isn’t cooperating. Rain. Hey, at least we’re not in Florida, as they get hit today with yet another hurricane. Poor Florida. The Gulf Coast gets hammered again.
So today, weather permitting, our contractor can figure out the shims for the feet of the railing between the middle and lower levels, cut them, mark them, and then put a coat of poly stain on them. Then screw them in tomorrow. And then saw the new threshold for the front door, so I can sand it and stain it later. That is, if it stops raining.
Horry Clap, between the weather, my health, his health, her job ... it’s a wonder anything gets done here.
Ok, time for a “wholesome” breakfast of a sandwich made from whatever I can find in the fridge, a banana, and a Nutty Buddy. And then I can get ready for my next doctor visit.
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[ sorry, snipping off old posts as needed ]
August 23, 2023
Hillary unavailable for comment, said to be super jealous.
Upstart Wagner Mercenary Leader Prigozhin Dead In “Accidental” Plane Crash
( yeah, it was accidentally hit with 2 missiles shortly after takeoff )
According to authorities, seven bodies have so far been recovered from the crash site of the private Embraer Legacy jet, which landed near the village of Kuzhenkino. Authorities had earlier said that all 10 people on board the aircraft had been killed.
Russia’s state aviation agency Rosaviatsia later published the flight manifest confirming Prigozhin was among the individuals on board the plane.
Prigozhin’s name appeared alongside that of Dmitry Utkin, believed to have played a crucial role as a co-founder and top commander within the Wagner mercenary group.
Five other passengers and three crew were also on board.
The leader of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the list of passengers on an aircraft that has crashed, the Russian Federal Agency for Air Transport (Rosaviatsiya) has said.
Ten people, including three crew members, were on board and all were killed, the agency says.
Prigozhin’s group has fought alongside Russia in Ukraine, until he headed a short-lived mutiny against Moscow in June.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the passenger list of a jet which crashed killing all on board, Russia’s civil aviation authority has said.
Earlier, Wagner-linked Telegram channel Grey Zone reported that the private plane, which belonged to the 62-year-old, was shot down by air defences.
Grey Zone posted later on Wednesday that Prigozhin died “as a result of actions of traitors of Russia”.
Prigozhin led a failed mutiny against the Russian armed forces in June.
The crash comes on the same day that senior Russian general Sergei Surovikin was reportedly sacked as air force chief.
Gen Surovikin was known to have good relations with Prigozhin and had not been seen in public since the mutiny.
The aircraft was flying from Moscow to St Petersburg, with seven passengers and three crew.
It is said to have come down near the village of Kuzhenkino in Tver region, about half-way between Moscow and St Petersburg.
Grey Zone said local residents heard two bangs before the crash and saw two vapour trails.
Tass news agency said the plane, an Embraer Legacy belonging to Prigozhin, caught fire on hitting the ground.
The aircraft had been in the air for less than half an hour, it added.
Senior Wagner commander Dmitry Utkin was also on the passenger list, aviation officials said.
Reporting is coming in little bits and pieces, most assembled here at the BBC.
Shaky phone video of the crash? Plane is just falling from the sky, totally out of control.
Prigozhin dead, #2 Utkin dead, allied general Surovikin fired. And that’s that!
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August 20, 2023
Wifely and I are prebowling tomorrow for the first week of No Longer Cheap league, our usual Friday night winter league. It starts up on September 8. I will be recovering from pyeloscopic surgery, which I’m having on the 6th. Supposedly it’s a day patient procedure, under general anesthetic for an hour or a little more. It’s to remove the third kidney stone I’ve ever had in my life, and this one is rough and too big to fit down the ureter. And it’s too deep within me, or my me is too thick, for the ultrasound methods. So it’s the probe, with its laser and its tiny collection basket. I’ll get a temporary stent, which gets pulled out a week later as an in-office procedure, via the attached string that will be hanging out the end for a week. I’m hoping they load me down with this heavy pain killers and antibiotics. So a week to recover from the surgery, and then half a week or so to recover from the stent removal. I am not looking forward to this, but it beats dying.
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August 17, 2023
Bowling Blogging, summer league edition
After only taking 2 last week and killing our 4 point lead, we won all 7 last night by the skin of our teeth. And the team we had hoped to shut out of the finals took 5. Going into last night we both had the same number of win points, but our team was in 1st because we had more scratch pins.
So now we’re ahead of them by just 2. So we’ll face them in the finals, with just that tiny buffer. A match is 7 points; 3 games at 2 points each, and total wood (scratch + handicap) for 1 point. To clinch 1st we still need to win at least 3. 3 would be winning 1 game by a huge margin, and then losing the next two by a tiny amount. That would give us 2 + 3 =5, to their 2 + 2 = 4. This isn’t likely; we’ve been rolling poorly and they’ve been getting better week after week. So we need to bowl really well, without stress, exhaustion, hot flashes, distractions from text messages from work, etc.
Both teams have won 62% of the games played this season, and our team average is about 40 points higher than theirs, which means we’ll give them 36.
We can do it. We just need a good night for a change. All of us can throw 200+ point games, 3 of us can hit over 240 sometimes, 3 of us can roll over 600 point series ... when we don’t mess up. Plus they’ll be absent one bowler; don’t know if he’ll prebowl or not, or even if that’s allowed for the finals.
Ok, it’s summer league, and nobody cares. Top prize is something like a pathetic $25 per bowler. But a “championship” is a championship, and this iteration of summer league has not been the usual collection of chumps and newbies that it usually is. Half the league is full winter teams staying in practice. So it hasn’t been easy at all.
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August 15, 2023
Another House Explodes In Plum PA, 5 Dead
10:30am on Saturday morning, a house in Plum PA suddenly exploded. The explosion was captured on a door cam. Several people were killed in the blast, others were trapped beneath the wreckage. The homes on either side were engulfed in flames and burned to the ground.
These houses are not all that old; it’s a fairly new development. Yet this is at least the 3rd home explosion in that town in the past couple decades, and the sixth one in the memory of the fire chief. Gas line fault? I have no idea. A faulty underground gas line was the cause of the 2008 explosion, and the town is built on top of oil and gas mines.
The video is amazing. Very frightening. There hasn’t been a gas appliance of any kind made in the past 35 years or more that has a pilot light. Every one of them only opens the gas pipe when it’s being used. And then electric ignition sparks the flame. AFAIK. Them’s the rules, for your safety.
Officials confirmed to reporters that Rustic Ridge Estates is surrounded by shallow oil and gas wells and located atop abandoned mine land. While two producing vertical gas wells are within 1,000 feet of the home that exploded, and a pipeline runs behind the development, none of the structures have been linked to the cause of the explosion, the Post-Gazette reported.
But residents have noted that this is not the first time Plum Borough has been rocked by a home explosion.
In 2008, a home explosion in the Holiday Park neighborhood killed Richard Leith, 64, and injured his 4-year-old granddaughter, Gianna Pettinato. The National Transportation Safety Board later determined that corrosion to an underground gas line resulted in a leak that led to the explosion.
Last year, another house in the Holiday Park section exploded in a blast that didn’t kill anyone but left a family displaced. The cause of the April 2022 explosion remains unclear.
“We need answers. We need to know why this is happening,” neighbor Justin Newman told WTAE after the Saturday explosion. “It’s sad that people lost their lives and we don’t have answers. We need answers for these families, we need answers for this community.”
The Saturday blast was the worst that James Sims, chief of the Holiday Park Volunteer Fire Department, had ever seen.
“I’ve been to six house explosions in Plum, and this is the worst I’ve seen in 47 years or 48 years, the worst one, just the amount of damage,” Sims, who is also the emergency management coordinator for Plum Borough, told the TV station.
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August 13, 2023
Ok, it’s another great day to move everything around. And then we can bring in dozens of boxes of flooring from the garage, lay them out, and sort them by pattern. Because they start getting laid tomorrow! Woo. Frickin. Hoo.
These links will upset you, but you should read them anyway:
Obama is a crock of crap. Even his world-renowned biographer says so. Yeah, we knew that. And an idiot who has the whole concept of America on ass backwards, probably because he’s a) a foreigner, b) a Marxist elitist, and perhaps c) a homo. Because homos hate everything and everyone. Find me one gay guy who is not a caustic little unhappy bitch. You can’t. “Gay” is the most inside out term that was every co-opted.
Biden is a traitor. Not only did he stop Trump’s wall, he’s selling of the materials at a loss, so no more wall can be built. This is abject treason, admit it.
There’s a great little video at the above link, bemoaning how, ever since the height of the border wall was increased, injuries of illegal aliens going over the wall has increased as well. Good. Make the wall twice as high, and sow a field of 26” tall iron spikes in the ground behind it. Fall to your death, spiked to the ground, and be left to rot. That’s the only approach that will work. Hell, put posters of Gandalf up all along the wall, in his “You shall not pass!!” scene. In beaner, of course. And Mandarian. And Haitian creole. And arabic and farsi. No point in putting English text on the posters.
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August 10, 2023
Boweling Blogging, summer league edition
No, that’s not a typo. The puppy is crying, it’s time for an emergency change of sheets. With just 2 weeks left in the rotation, we went into last night in first place by 4. We faced a team we had to give 76 points handicap to, as our averages are much better than theirs. Examining the weekly history showed that we bowled at least 76 pins better than they did 9 weeks out of 12. So it wasn’t a sure thing, but the odds were in their favor. And then we screwed the pooch and shit the bed.
We won just one game, and went 2-5 for the night. I bowled on average, 7 over 5 under 1 over, so it wasn’t a great night for me. But I didn’t mess up. M bowled a little over average too. But our other two rollers were simply awful. Wifely was way way under all night, drifting right, throwing gutter balls, doing thumb flops ... terrible. Her final game was a 100; 50 under her already low 150 average, and easily 75 under where she can usually throw. S, our anchor, is easily a 220 bowler in the winter, but has been off so much this summer he’s carrying a 181. “I threw a 739 series on Monday.” Great ... but somehow he threw in the 130s last night. So we got creamed. And the team behind us was on fire, winning all 7. So now we’re still in 1st, but tied for points and only ahead by scratch pins.
It was a sad night. That’s how it goes sometimes. Reality conspires against you. And I really wanted the win. We usually beat that team 7-0 or 5-2. And they weren’t really that hot last night either. We just sucked.
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Right now, Global Warming is real. And it has nothing to do with people.
Blame Scotland !!
but mostly
Blame Tonga !!!
h/t to The Daley Gator who links to Granite Grok who links to NASA with a later follow on report by The European Space Agency which links to a report in Nature, all via The American Thinker.
Sorry about so many links, but that’s what it takes to drill down to the actual facts and the actual story. A story, of course, that goes against the Greta Thunberg, Doom Pixie AGW narrative and is pretty much ignored by the MSM.
In January of 2022 the Hunga Hunga-Tonga Ha’apai volcano erupted. It caused a whole lot of destruction the the Pacific Island Nation of Tonga, sending eruption material 58km up into the stratosphere, caused a 15m tall tsunami that destroyed island villages for hundreds of miles around it, and created a sonic boom that went around the entire world twice.
But Hunga-Tonga was actually worse than that. It was an undersea volcano, about 490 feet beneath the waves. And nearly all of that eruptive material was water. Approximately 0.146 teragrams of water, which is 146,000 MILLION liters. That’s a cube of water 526 feet on a side, or a swimming pool big enough to float about 500 of the largest naval and cargo ships ever built, all at once.
The water vapor spread all around the world in a short amount of time. Early approximations suggested that this amount of water raised the amount of water in the stratosphere by 10%, but a later and more accurate analysis by the ESA showed it to be at least 13%. That’s a tremendous spike, unlike any other eruption in the fairly recent past.
And water vapor is MUCH better a heat trapping greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Something like 3 or 4 times better. Water vapor accounts for up to 85% of the greenhouse effects. Now make it 13% richer. Yikes.
But never fear, NASA says the impact won’t last long.
When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted on Jan. 15, it sent a tsunami racing around the world and set off a sonic boom that circled the globe twice. The underwater eruption in the South Pacific Ocean also blasted an enormous plume of water vapor into Earth’s stratosphere – enough to fill more than 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. The sheer amount of water vapor could be enough to temporarily affect Earth’s global average temperature.
“We’ve never seen anything like it,” said Luis Millán, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. He led a new study examining the amount of water vapor that the Tonga volcano injected into the stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere between about 8 and 33 miles (12 and 53 kilometers) above Earth’s surface.
In the study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, Millán and his colleagues estimate that the Tonga eruption sent around 146 teragrams (1 teragram equals a trillion grams) of water vapor into Earth’s stratosphere – equal to 10% of the water already present in that atmospheric layer. That’s nearly four times the amount of water vapor that scientists estimate the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines lofted into the stratosphere.
The excess water vapor injected by the Tonga volcano, on the other hand, could remain in the stratosphere for several years.
This extra water vapor could influence atmospheric chemistry, boosting certain chemical reactions that could temporarily worsen depletion of the ozone layer. It could also influence surface temperatures. Massive volcanic eruptions like Krakatoa and Mount Pinatubo typically cool Earth’s surface by ejecting gases, dust, and ash that reflect sunlight back into space. In contrast, the Tonga volcano didn’t inject large amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere, and the huge amounts of water vapor from the eruption may have a small, temporary warming effect, since water vapor traps heat. The effect would dissipate when the extra water vapor cycles out of the stratosphere and would not be enough to noticeably exacerbate climate change effects.
But don’t be mislead: when NASA says “won’t last long”, they’re talking in geologic time, of which the entirety of human existence is a couple of ticks on the world clock. So we’re looking at a few years, perhaps a decade. It took most of a year for the effects to become noticeable ...
• Glaciers in Greenland melting faster
• Antarctic ice at lowest mid-winter level in forever
• Hottest July 4 in 125,000 years!!
• Surface temperatures higher than evar
et cetera
Funny thing, since we all now Trust The Science, this actual science isn’t making headlines. Gotta wonder why, right?
The headline you haven’t seen: “Tonga Eruption Blasted Unprecedented Amount of Water Into Stratosphere.” That’s from NASA. The text accompanying some impressive time-lapse imagery notes, “The sheer amount of water vapor could be enough to temporarily affect Earth’s global average temperature.”
Water vapor is the single biggest driver of …climate change. No, it is not CO2, its negligible 0.04% of the atmosphere or your minuscule 3% of that 0.04%....
A year later, the press has its dander up about heat waves, record heat, and how you’re lazy Western lifestyle is to blame—wrong answer. Your meaningless emissions are, well, meaningless. Yes, humans can pollute the biosphere. We need only look to mining for rare earth metals in Africa or to China, the world’s largest polluter, and emitter, which is also the leading producer of wind turbines and solar panels.
The irony is lost on many, like the massive water vapor injection into the upper atmosphere.
Over at The American Thinker, relating what NASA says:
This extra water vapor could influence atmospheric chemistry, boosting certain chemical reactions that could temporarily worsen depletion of the ozone layer. It could also influence surface temperatures. Massive volcanic eruptions like Krakatoa and Mount Pinatubo typically cool Earth’s surface by ejecting gases, dust, and ash that reflect sunlight back into space. In contrast, the Tonga volcano didn’t inject large amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere, and the huge amounts of water vapor from the eruption may have a small, temporary warming effect, since water vapor traps heat. The effect would dissipate when the extra water vapor cycles out of the stratosphere.
So there you have it: we are in for extra atmospheric heat “for several years” until the extra water vapor injected by this largest-ever-recorded underwater volcano eruption dissipates.
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So, what does this have to do with Scotland?
Well, the brain trust up in Edinburrrgggh decided to FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE by installing lots and lots of wind turbines and solar panels. To do this, they cut down entire forests, clear cutting vast numbers of acres, destroying the ecosystem, TO SAVE THE PLANET. 16 MILLION trees so far.
Almost 16 million trees have been chopped down on publicly owned land in Scotland to make way for wind farms, an SNP minister had admitted amid a major drive to erect more turbines.
Mairi Gougeon, the Rural Affairs Secretary, estimated that 15.7 million trees had been felled since 2000 in land that is currently managed by agency Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) - the equivalent of more than 1,700 per day.
She insisted there was a planning presumption in favour of protecting woodland and wind farm developers would be expected to undertake “compensatory planting elsewhere”.
But Liam Kerr, a Scottish Tory MSP, said the public would be “astonished” at the total and cited concerns about the developments that had been raised with him “by communities all over the country.”
Scotland already has turbines theoretically capable of generating 8.4GW of power, well over half the UK’s total, but SNP ministers want to add a further 8-12GW.
Protections for unspoiled wild land watered downTheir latest planning framework relaxes controls on building more turbines, with protections for unspoiled wild land watered down.
The John Muir Trust, a conservation charity, has warned the new threshold for allowing wind farm companies to build turbines on wild land is so low that it appears impossible for them not to meet it.
The SNP wind power target also includes replacing existing turbines that may be coming to the end of their working life with even taller and larger versions, a process called “repowering”.
It emerged earlier this year that some developers want to erect turbines up to 850 feet tall, the equivalent of more than 60 double decker buses. [ to hell with bird choppers, 850 feet windmills are helicopter choppers!! ]
In a letter to Mr Kerr, dated July 13, Ms Gougeon said the equivalent of around 7,858 hectares of trees had been chopped down to make way for wind farms since 2000.
With an average of 2,000 trees per hectare, she said: “This gives an estimated total of 15.7 million trees which have been felled in order to facilitate windfarm development.”
( a hectare is 10,000 square meters, a hair less than 2.5 acres. So 2,000 into 16,000,000 is 8,000 hectares, which is about 20,000 acres. A square mile is 640 acres, so they’ve clear cut over 31 square miles of forest. )
All those trees, all that undergrowth, all those happy little redheaded animals cavorting and drinking whiskey in the Scottish forest in their cute little kilts and claymores. It’s not like Scotland has a lack of rainfall. It’s mostly soggy there all the time. And now that the weather is going to be more intense, more rain, more wind ... losing miles and miles of trees doesn’t seem like such a great idea. Especially not for a boondoggle tax dodge like solar panels and wind turbines. So we’ll blame them, in a couple years.
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August 3, 2023
Hey bloggies, I’m still kicking it. House is torn apart worse than ever, so contractor can paint downstairs. Project within a project, we’re looking into removing the cheap sheetmetal builder quality fireplace we’ve never used even once since we moved in, and it’s sealed, and putting in a closet instead. Less heat leak, more storage space. Getting some flack from the condo manager who pretends she can’t understand my terms. Do I look like a chimney guy to you? Heck no. I’m no flueologist. Whatevs. So I submitted yet another form. And called my old neighbor the chimney guy. And asked the contractor to work up some numbers.
We’re still in first place at summer bowling leagues. Just a few more weeks to go. We won all 7 Wednesday night, in the absolutely worst lane conditions I’ve ever seen. Somehow the back deck got oiled, so the pins were sliding instead of falling. It was a nightmare. Lucky us we had a sub in who threw a fairly straight line, and earned a 726 series, way over average. Sweet.
Ok, time to go find some Kwahn Trueow, or however you pronounce that fwenh orange booze you make a quality margarita with.
The new dishwasher arrived yesterday, typical delivery screw up from Lowe’s. But it got here. Except there’s STILL no flooring, so I have this big ass box in the middle of the kitchen floor. Someday, please.
Gasoline prices are up 15-26 cents in the past week or two. FJB. Meanwhile, more asinine BS charges against Trump. I want a mass hanging of nearly everyone in DC. About 100,000 at a go should be a nice start.
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July 30, 2023
There may be several days of no blog updates. I mean, even less than usual. None.
This is also a project update, as our contractor is going above and beyond and painting the whole living room and den. So all the furniture has to move and everything on it needs to be packed up. And the den is where the computer lives, and all our books, and all our CDs, and everything else. So this is going to take me hours just to figure out where to put things.
“It’s always darkest before the dawn.” Yeah, and your home is always reduced to complete and total un-usability as the project nears completion. And it’s been near completion for quite some time now. This guy continues to take over every open inch of our space, inside and out, and no part of any job is ever fully complete. So we don’t have a kitchen floor. We don’t have a coat closet: no floor, no doors, the shelves have his tools and paint and everything on them. We don’t have the hallway recess; no floor, no seat, no coat hooks. But at least it’s been repainted nicely in a non-putrid green (S-W Softened Green). In our place, Parlour Sage came out looking like 1970s appliance avocado. Yuck. We don’t have a dining room; most of the furniture got moved to the living room, and everything else is under tarps. We have one small spot where you can sit in a dining chair and eat a small plate meal at the edge of the dining table, but doing that blocks the passage through the room. And in the living room, most of what got moved there has now been moved to the den. And everything else is under tarps. We have no TV or stereo. The old big couch went out the back slider; it’s going to the dump soon. The loveseat is under a couple old shower curtains because we only had so many tarps. Everything had to be moved, removed, or covered so he could paint. And he always needs several extra days to paint, to go back over here and there and touch up, to respackle some rough spot, etc.
We gave him Monday off, as the water will be off all day long in our half of the condo village so they can do leak testing. And we need to be ready to go out to a fancy restaurant, leaving here perhaps as early as 2:30 to miss the traffic jams caused by the unnecessary mountain pass blasting being done up on the never ending Jugtown Mountain rockfall project astride the highway, another total waste of taxpayer money. So we (I) have to find every large bucket and jug and fill them with water so we can flush the toilet, and we’d better get all the laundry done today and shower tonight. But that “little” double monkey wrench still doesn’t stop me from having to empty out as much of the den as I can today, and maybe some more Monday, so he can paint the next several days.
And then can we have our floors and doors? PLEASE??? I really can’t take the life-squeeze much longer. I want my home back.
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If this sounds familiar, “just like Canada”, it’s because the minions are global. You knew that.
Greece: Majority of forest fires are ARSON
Greek Climate Change Minister Vassilis Kikilias has revealed that the majority of the 667 fires that have erupted across the country in recent weeks were ignited by “were caused by human hand”.
Kikilias told reporters that the people responsible were guilty of “arsons either by criminal negligence or by intention”, according to Sky News.
While legacy media outlets have begun to begrudgingly admit that arson is playing a major role in the fires, they continue to claim that supposed climate change has made it easier for the fires to spread.
The Greek newspaper Kathimerini noted, however, that a significant element in the annual problem of wildfires is that “arsonists, who are usually tried for negligence since intent is extremely hard to prove, tend to get away with small sentences, rarely serve any prison time and face no other penalty for the terrible destruction they cause to humans, animals, the environment etc.”
The Greek climate minister reported that the fires have burnt 400 square kilometres of land in just the month of July, compared to the recent yearly average of around 500 square kilometres. While devastating, it should be noted that far more land was burned in previous years, including the recorded high in 2007 when about four times as much land was burned.
Arson has been used by dissidents as a weapon in Greece for over 40 years now. This is nothing new. Give me want I want, right now, or you’ll burn!!
Shoot these little shits and pile up their damp bodies as fire breaks.
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No. Just take him out back and put a bullet in his head.
Transgender Murderer Who Killed His Two Babies Will Receive Taxpayer-Funded Breast Implants in Women’s Prison
Jason Michael Hann, who now goes by the name “Jessica Marie Hann,” received the death penalty in 2014 for killing his daughter Montana and son Jason — but now he is in a women’s prison and will be given taxpayer-funded breast implants because he decided he is “transgender.”
Hann killed his 10-week-old daughter Montana in 1999 and his two-month-old son Jason in 2001. The baby’s bodies were found in storage units in Arkansas and Arizona.
Go read the link if you want to see just how depraved this animal is. It and it’s partner are the sickest of the sick, the lowest of the low. They are SERIAL CHILD RAPISTS. ABUSERS. AND MURDERERS. And he started with his own children. They had nearly tortured another infant to death when they were captured.
Burn them with fire. Chop them into shreds. Pull them apart via giant tortoises while acid drips into their eyes and insects eat their still living flesh. They are psychotic evil in human skin. Destroy them. [ and it isn’t “cruel and unusual” if this becomes the standard punishment for child torture/rape/murder cases. ]
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(somehow this posted at the bottom of the page yesterday instead of the top. Fixed it I hope. Mostly. I lost some of the extra links, but you can look up the term and find them easily.)
July 29, 2023
I don’t see what other conclusions you can draw. The FDA, hand in glove with insurance companies and the medical establishment, wants you to die. Especially if you’re older, sicker, or have some affliction that’s a drain on their infinite profit margin.
Please read the essay at the link. I vowed to not post any more Covid stuff, but this is different.
And what scares me, is that I was one step away from this. I told the story the other year, how a week after I got over Omnicron a simple doctor visit turned into me being sent by ambulance to the hospital ($1000 out of pocket to me) even though I had someone waiting for me in the parking lot who could have driven me, how I was strapped to a bed in an negative pressure isolation booth in the emergency room and left for hours and hours, unable to shift position, use the bathroom, or even have a drink of water, how the staff gave me a test and an x-ray and admitted me without asking, and how finally some exhausted doctor came in to pressure me into getting on the Remdesivir treatment for a week. And pressured me, and pressured me. And I declined, said how I knew it was outlawed in Europe, how so many people on the “treatment” died, and then flat out asked her how many people in her hospital had died from this? When her response was a cagey “I can’t say” I checked myself out, and stood outside in the cold until my ride showed up.
I feel to this day that I dodged a bullet. Reading this essay, I dodged an attempt to murder me, for medical profit.
And now, this BS “medicine” ( that I had followed the development of, watched for months as it failed trial after trial, watched in amazement how this junk got instant approval, knew that it carried a warning of severe kidney and liver damage ) ... has now been approved by the FDA as a Covid treatment for kidney patients.
They want you to die.
Read this essay and be afraid, shocked, upset and angry: Run, Death Is Near
Remdesivir may be the most despised drug in American history, earning the nickname Run Death Is Near for its lethal record during COVID. Experts claimed that it would stop COVID; instead, it stopped kidney function, then blasted the liver and other organs. Now this reviled destroyer of kidneys has been approved by the FDA for COVID treatment of kidney patients. Does anybody else feel as if the FDA is shoving its power in our faces and laughing at us?
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July 28, 2023
The past few days:
Several crew members were forced to jump overboard after the fire began on Tuesday night on the 199-metre (655-foot) Panama-registered Fremantle Highway as it was en route from Germany to Egypt.
The Indian Embassy in the Netherlands said in a social media post the fire had “resulted in the death of an Indian seafarer and injuries to the crew”, and that it was in touch with family of the deceased. Japan’s Shoei Kisen, which owns the ship, said the entire crew of 21 was Indian.
Rescue ships sprayed water onto the burning vessel to cool it down, but using too much water risked its sinking, the Dutch coastguard said. It was attached to a salvage vessel to prevent it drifting.
The fire might last for several days, Dutch news agency ANP reported, citing the coastguard. Smoke continued to billow from the vessel near the northern Dutch island of Ameland.
“The fire is most definitely still not controlled. It’s a very hard fire to extinguish, possibly because of the cargo the ship was transporting,” said Edwin Versteeg, a spokesperson for the Dutch Department of Waterways and Public Works.
The coastguard said on its website the cause of the fire was unknown, but a coastguard spokesperson had earlier told Reuters it began near an electric car. Roughly 25 out of 2,857 vehicles on the ship were electric. [ about 0.875% ]
Similar links here and here.
I guess some intrepid reporter actually got hold of the ship’s manifest, because today ...
This is more than 13% of the now larger number of vehicles being carried. It also means the ship was nearly full, so earlier stories about the 4000 vehicle capable ship being nowhere near full were only off by ... about a thousand cars.
My how the story changes. Maybe by next week we’ll here how it was a greenie martyr who set the fire to save the earth. Who knows?
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July 23, 2023
Project Update
Do it right, do it white, save a lot of money.
Figuring out a backsplash tile layout for kitchen. She wants it to cover most of the space between the countertop and under the wall cabinets. Call it 15”. Tile is just clay, but it’s super expensive these days. Like $15 per square foot. But there is plain gloss white out there, which is relatively cheap. So I figured out a pattern that uses just 3 squares of the thin glass colored accent tiles, 24’ of the beveled 3"x6" white ones, 28’ of the 2” bullnose, 2 of the 2x2 double bullnose tiles, and 72 feet of the 3” plain white ones, either the 6” or 12” long, or a mix. It’s a white wall with double racing stripes, with a bevel tiles between the stripes to give a dimensional aspect.
Yeah, it’s still going to cost. But not as much as the $24/sqft the tile shack places charge for hexagons, herringbones, or fancy colors.
And this will be easy to clean.
So, let’s see how long it takes her to reject my plan, which only took me about 4 hours to spec out.
I still like the 2x4 sheets of gray and white ones too, and just leave the ends raw. Sneak a couple rows of the glass accent tiles between the 3 and 4th row, or the 4th and 5th row. They’re on a mesh backing, so installation and spacing should be easier. Costs a bit more, but has some color and isn’t brilliant white.
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July 22, 2023
Project Update
Most of the painting is done at this point. New trim molding is in, the problem with the baseboard heat was solved by swapping in another thermostat. The edge of the hallway recess seat has been given a 1/4” roundover with a router, so it’s ready to sand, stain, and poly. We found a pullout glide short enough so we can put the garbage and the recycling under there, though this means using smaller can than we had before. Oh well. I’ll take the tradeoff of having to empty smaller bags more often and get back a bit more floor space.
And when all of this is done, THEN we can have to flooring put in. And we’ll be done ... or done enough for the next 6 months. Or a year. I need a long long long break from all of this.
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Playing the Community for pride and profit
New LGBT “Gay Water” Beverage, only $18.25 a six pack
A consumer backlash has called for boycotts of Bud Light and other brands that have made progressive moves, proclaiming: “Go woke, go broke” — with disastrous results for Bud Light and its short-lived spokesperson, Dylan Mulvaney.
But “Gay Water” — which adopts a moniker the gay community has long given to the simple vodka and soda cocktail — has been inspired by the dustup to become even bolder about the audience it’s targeting, founder and CEO Spencer Hoddeson told The Post.
“This will probably change our marketing — and maybe even distribution — strategy,” Hoddeson said, referring to Bud Light’s ill-fated tie-up with Mulvaney, which has recently sent its sales tumbling nearly 25%.
“But not in the ways you may think,” Hoddeson added. “It will fuel us. We are a brand that is unafraid to fight for our community.”
Gay Water—a canned cocktail brand that plays on the gay community’s colloquialism for the vodka-and-soda mixed drink—launched on Wednesday and promises to understand its audience better than Bud Light.Gay Water — a canned cocktail brand that plays on the gay community’s colloquialism for the vodka-and-soda mixed drink — launched on Wednesday and promises to understand its audience better than Bud Light.Spencer Hoddeson/InstagramThe cans — which, upon launch, are currently being sold primarily online — are available in six- and 12-packs for $18.25 and $36.50, respectively. The six-packs only come in a single flavor — lime — while the 12-packs feature a mix of watermelon, lime, peach, and grapefruit.
The 30-year-old Hoddeson said he is using suggestive — albeit playful — messaging and imagery in Gay Water’s social media and website, including a provocative nod to the 12-ounce can’s 6.1-inch height.
“Our mission is to de-stigmatize the word ‘gay’ and start to create representation in spaces that traditionally don’t have queer-owned products, let alone products with the word ‘gay’ in their title,” Hoddeson told The Post.
No word on whether the mail ordered product will be delivered in a Subaru.
What really makes me smirk is realizing that Gay Water is remarkably similar to Ranch Water, that oh-so-macho Texas Cowboy cocktail. Ranch water uses white tequila, lime juice, and Mexican mineral water. Gay Water uses vodka, lime juice, and any old water.
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KamalaToe goes to Florida to rail against their new scholastic syllabus on slavery
Of course she does. The new teaching outline is honest, and says all kinds of positive things about people who were slaves in our country. But it does mention that some of those valuable slaves learned valuable skills, so it’s no good. Nope, the narrative says all slaves were blacks, all were always cruelly mistreated, and that the only thing they even did was pick cotton while being whipped.
As usual, she’s in 2nd place in the Ultimate Stoopid competition, behind AOC.
Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to travel to Florida on Friday to deliver critical remarks in response to the state Board of Education’s approval of new standards for how Black history will be taught in schools.
The trip to Jacksonville will highlight efforts to “protect fundamental freedoms, specifically, the freedom to learn and teach America’s full and true history,” a White House official said in an announcement first shared with NBC News.
Harris, whose mother was a civil rights activist, will also meet with parents, educators, civil rights leaders and elected officials, the official said. Her last trip to Florida was in April.
In remarks Thursday, Harris blasted efforts in some states to ban books and “push forward revisionist history.”
“Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery,” she said at a convention for the traditionally Black sorority Delta Sigma Theta Inc. “They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it.”
The Post story links to the curriculum, here. The slavery syllabus outline is the first 20 pages. Taught in depth, there’s a Bachelor’s Degree worth of knowledge here. It goes back in history to the beginning of civilization, talks about the various kinds of slavery all across the world, where the whole thing came from, how it grew, and the horrible awful unspeakable reality that slaves in the USA were fewer and better treated than slaves everywhere else on the planet in that time period. Was it a bad thing? Of course. Were there problems, abuses, and violent punishments? Of course there were. But most of the teaching modules seem to lean towards “we shall overcome”; making the best of a bad situation and striving for dignity and freedom.
So she’s full of it, as always. But the media will take her side, and ignore all the rest. And the rest is a wealth of knowledge that everyone should know. Heck, do you even know what “enclosure” was, and how that lead to expulsion and permanent indenture at the far corners of the world? Do you know how the Conquistadors treated the locals they enslaved? Their level of brutality was even worse than what went on in Arabia, where slaves were sent underground to dig the qanats, and died en masse of starvation, exhaustion, and drowning. In the desert. By the thousands, for centuries. And the Spaniards were worse than that. Do you know that at least a million people are still slaves today? Mostly in Africa, owned by other Africans. But the Middle East isn’t too far behind them.
And in this current age of generation spanning cancellation, not a word will be said that VP Harris is a direct descendant from slave owners. Not. A. Word.
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on 09/26/2023 at 07:20 PM
Miscellaneous • Comments (460) • Trackbacks (4) • Permalink
Wednesday - August 19, 2020
Gee, Oops
A total non-surprise. We saw this coming back in early March. The richer you were the earlier, faster, and further you ran. Problem is, it’s worse than anyone thought at the time.
NYC Ship Sinking, Rats Long Gone
New York City is home to 118 billionaires, more than any other American city. New York City is also home to nearly one million millionaires, more than any other city in the world. Among those millionaires some 8,865 are classified as “high net worth,” with more than $30 million each.
They pay the taxes. The top one percent of NYC taxpayers pay nearly 50 percent of all personal income taxes collected in New York. Personal income tax in the New York area accounts for 59 percent of all revenues. Property taxes add in more than a billion dollars a year in revenue, about half of that generated by office space.
...
The budget for a city as complex as New York is a mess of federal, state, and local funding sources. It can be sliced and diced many ways, but the one that matters is the starkest: the people and companies who pay for New York’s poor are leaving even as the city is already facing a $7.4 billion tax revenue hit from the initial effects of the coronavirus. The money is there; New York’s wealthiest individuals have increased their net worth by $44.9 billion during the pandemic. It’s just not here.
...
While overall only five percent of residents left as of May, in the city’s very wealthiest blocks residential population decreased by 40 percent or more. The higher-earning a neighborhood is, the more likely it is to have emptied out. Even the amount of trash collected in wealthy neighborhoods has dropped, a tell-tale sign no one is home. A real estate agent told me she estimates about a third of the apartments even in my mid-range 300 unit building are empty.
...
Fewer than one-tenth of Manhattan office workers came back to the workplace a month after New York gave businesses the green light to return to the buildings they ran from in March. Having had several months to notice what not paying Manhattan office rents might do for their bottom line, large companies are leaving.
on 08/19/2020 at 10:52 PM
Economics • Pandemic Pandemonium • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
The ‘Rona Song
Leave it Country music to be perfectly topical and metaphorical at the same time
When the dogwoods start to bloom
And the crickets hum their tune
That’s usually about the time
That I feel most alive
But the news has all been bad
And the whole world seems so sad
I ain’t had much else going on
So I sat down and wrote this song
I miss my mom, I miss my dad
I miss the road, I miss my band
Giving hugs and shaking hands
It’s a mystery I suppose
Just how long this thing goes
But there’ll be crowds and there’ll be shows
And there will be light after dark
Someday when we aren’t six feet apart
on 08/19/2020 at 10:27 PM
Music • Pandemic Pandemonium • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
Follow Me !
One of the benefits of our universally computer driven modern world is package tracking. Mated with theoretically optimized routes and warehousing, we now can get our deliveries much faster than in decades past. For the impatient, most of the deliver services allow you track your boxes or letters step by step as they wend their way in your direction. [ OTOH, this also allows you to watch the Post Office send your stuff all over the country willy-nilly, leave it at distribution centers for days or weeks at a time, and sometimes take days to move something just 7 miles from one center to the next, and then take a full week to deliver it a whole 42 miles away. Sorry, my pet peeve, after recently pulling my hair out when a letter took more than a month to get delivered. Just wait until the whole country tries to vote by mail this November. Guaranteed disaster. ]
Now UPS has brought out “Follow Me”, a real time, self-updating, GPS driven mapping application, that let’s you see the big brown truck driving all over with your package in it. Not sure if this is going to help or hurt, because most people won’t realize that there are 300 other boxes in that truck, and yours is almost guaranteed to be last in line. It was already a bit frustrating just following the data, watching my box go from Florida to Edison NJ in hardly over a day, but then on to Allentown PA, right past my home, and then have to go on to another truck to come back to NJ days later and to get delivered ... later today? Maybe. “Out for delivery” for 3 days? Oy vey.
on 08/19/2020 at 09:22 AM
Big Business • Daily Life • High Tech • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
eye candy, high plains edition
I thought I posted this the other day, but it seems to have evaporated. Whatevs.
Anyway, this is actress Kelsey Asbille Chow. She had a small but regular role in the One Tree Hill drama a few years back, and was in the 2017 film Wind River. Currently she has a supporting role on Paramount’s cowboy drama / Kevin Costner vehicle Yellowstone.
We watch Yellowstone, it’s great, and it’s interesting to see her character developing from a whiny liberal into someone more normal. That’s going to be long journey. She is super attractive though.
Monday - August 17, 2020
Flowers For Algernon?
Funny, I kind of thought it was the President’s job to keep people aware of new possibilities and to give them even temporary hope. But the Left may be right on this one. Like the blind squirrel ...
Most Americans have been praying for a cure to the Chinese Communist Party virus. Such a prospect turns out to be horrifying, however, if you are a Deep State bureaucrat, someone invested in open-ended and lucrative research into unpromising medicines or vaccines and/or a political opponent of President Trump.
Hence the vehemently hostile response of a leftist publication called Axios to information about Oleandrin, a natural supplement that has proven in clinical experiments and limited human trials in Texas to crush the CCP virus. Rather than celebrate this development and call for an urgent effort to validate such findings with widespread, life-saving trials, Axios touted the uninformed criticisms of naysayers determined to snuff further work on this apparent breakthrough.
To the alarm of some government health officials, President Trump has expressed enthusiasm for the Food and Drug Administration to permit an extract from the oleander plant to be marketed as a dietary supplement or, alternatively, approved as a drug to cure COVID-19, despite lack of proof that it works.
Driving the news: The experimental botanical extract, oleandrin, was promoted to Trump during an Oval Office meeting in July. It’s embraced by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell, a big Trump backer, who recently took a financial stake in the company that develops the product.
OMG, if Mike Lindell is behind it, you know it’s deathly anathema.
Oleandrin is an extract from the oleander plant. Researchers have suggested that it could be useful to treat cancer because of the way it affects cells, and that it could enhance the effects of other cancer therapies.
Professor Sharon Lewin, the director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity at the University of Melbourne, is an international authority on antiviral drugs and has a laboratory working on COVID-19.
Asked about oleandrin’s potential efficacy as a COVID-19 treatment, Lewin told Axios, “Oleandrin looks to have antiviral activity at high doses in a test tube model. You’d certainly want to see more work done on this before even contemplating a human trial.”A July 2020 study from the University of Texas at Galveston shows, in a laboratory setting, that oleandrin can inhibit the coronavirus in monkey kidney cells. This study has not been peer reviewed and one of the authors of the study, Robert Newman, is chairman of Phoenix Biotechnology’s scientific advisory board — the company developing the oleandrin product.
The bottom line: Scientists around the world are in a race for cures, treatments and vaccines for COVID-19. Government regulators are investigating hundreds of products. When a biotech executive like Whitney can take his case directly to the president, it casts doubt over the scientific rigor of the drug development process.
Using Vero cells, we found that prophylactic oleandrin administration at concentrations down to 0.05 μg/ml exhibited potent antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2, with an 800 fold reduction in virus production, and a 0.1 μg/ml dose resulted in a greater than 3,000-fold reduction in infectious virus production. The EC50values were 11.98ng/ml when virus output was measured at 24 hours post-infection, and 7.07ng/ml measured at 48 hours post-infection. Therapeutic (post-infection) treatment up to 24 hours after infection of Vero cells also reduced viral titers, with the 0.1 μg/ml dose causing greater than 100-foldreductions as measured at 48 hours, and the 0.05 μg/ml dose resulting in a 3578-fold reduction.The potent prophylactic and therapeutic antiviral activities demonstrated here strongly support the further development of oleandrin to reduce the severity of COVID-19 and potentially also to reduce spread by persons diagnosed early after infection.
In years past the FDA has been dinged for major slow walking and foot dragging when it comes to testing and approving new medicines. Many drugs are available to the rest of the world that are not yet available to us. With this pandemic that slowness has become an issue, but I don’t think the best idea is to throw caution to the wind and let anything fly. That way leads to snake oil. There has to be some level of significant proper, fair, testing.
OTOH, the Axios article does mention how this could easily be marketed as an herbal supplement, which could NOT focus on any curative ability. To which there’s an easy work around; “We’re NOT ALLOWED to mention that this cures Covid, and thus cannot recommend a dose of 2 pills a day for 2 weeks. This product is for dietary supplemental use only, and we bear no responsibility for it’s use in any other manner.” kind of advertising.
OTTH, shouldn’t President Trump know by now when to keep his fat mouth shut?
Oleandir is poisonous !!! !! !
Consumption of even one Nerium oleander leaf can be fatal. Onset of toxicity occurs several hours following consumption. Symptoms include vomiting, abdominal pain, cyanosis, hypotension, hypothermia, vertigo, respiratory paralysis and death.
However, a carefully controlled tea made from the flowers could be an effective cancer and AIDS treatment. But more trials are needed!!
A hot water extract of the plant, known as Anvirzel™, has been developed as a potential treatment for cancer, AIDS, and congestive heart failure. It consists of a mixture of oleandrin and the glycone oleandrigenin. Experiments suggest that a combination of Anvirzel and cisplatin may be more effective than cisplatin monotherapy . In an earlier study, Anvirzel appeared safe in humans when injected intramuscularly, although adverse effects such as injection site pain, fatigue, and other GI symptoms were reported.
Anvirzel™ is not an approved cancer treatment in the United States. Until more data regarding its efficacy and toxicity are available, this product should not be used outside of clinical trials.
Anvirzel may be a modern version of a medicinal extract of oleander that goes back to the dawn of history.
Historical records prove that Oleander plant has healing powers; thus it was highly regarded by the Mesopotamians in the 15th century B.C. During the age of the Babylonians up to the Romans it was used as a relieved for hangovers. To the Arabs it has better worth since the plant was used for cancer medication in the 8th century A.D.
OTOH, the Romans also used it to commit suicide.
I looked up the entry at Wiki ... and I think I’ll pass on this one. There may be too much risk in a cure made from just a little bit of deadly poison.
on 08/17/2020 at 01:06 PM
pandemic and epidemic diseases • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
The Death Of NYC?
This is what happens when you elect a communist as mayor. One who encourages rioting and lawlessness. Riots after weeks of extended lockdown. Retail is dying. Populations are fleeing. Violence is everywhere, at unprecedented levels. It’s anarchy and depression.
De Blasio’s New York has finally hit an all-time low: the once bustling city is now on the verge of looking like a demilitarized zone. Between the pandemic and the riots in the city, iconic 5th Avenue now looks more like a dystopian nightmare in a recently shot video posted to Twitter.
The video follows a car driving down a deserted 5th Avenue, with almost all of the area’s high end stores boarded up and shut down. There are few people seen on what is usually a busy street.
“Look at everything. Everything’s boarded up. Even the hotel. Boarded up,” the video’s narrator, who is obviously fed up with how the city looks, says.
He continues: “This is all Manhattan, boarded up. Have you ever seen Manhattan look like this? The media will not report this.”
“Everything boarded up. They don’t want to show this to you people because they’re afraid. Saks 5th Avenue - boarded up from end to end. They put up barbed wire. Everywhere you see boards, windows are gone. Look at New York City - what happened,” he says.
The video runs over 2 minutes and shows dozens of boarded up businesses.
Check the video. Manhattan is boarded up. Block after block of high-end retail closed down and barricaded.
This isn’t exactly new. Similar video from more than a month ago.
No, it’s not a war zone — it’s Manhattan.
Video shows once-bustling Big Apple streets nearly deserted and dotted with boarded-up, spray-painted and bashed-in buildings after days of looting.
The footage taken Tuesday and Wednesday in Midtown and Soho shows the windows of popular stores shattered while others — such as Burberry, Sephora and Sunglasses Hut — are covered in plywood to protect against looters.
...
Only a handful of masked pedestrians and police officers are seen walking on eerily empty sidewalks. Some plywood panels put up by shops were tagged with graffiti reading, “Justice for George Floyd” — the black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground for nearly nine minutes.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many Big Apple retailers have been closed for months prior to protests over Floyd’s death.
These riots happened at the end of May ...
Sidewalks across the SoHo neighborhood, Union Square and Fifth Avenue were covered in broken glass. Multiple police cars had been burnt to nothing but ashes. Stores, including a Duane Reade, Urban Outfitters and Swatch, were looted. Banks were ravaged. An Equinox gym had been broken in to. Graffiti covered retailers’ logos up and down some of the glitziest shopping districts, which normally would be hosting a hotbed of tourist activity this time of year.
The New York Police Department has since said it arrested almost 350 people Saturday evening, following protests across parts of Harlem, Brooklyn and Staten Island. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said in a press conference held Sunday that more than 30 officers suffered minor injuries due to clashes with demonstrators.
It’s now the middle of August. More than 11 weeks later. And these businesses are still closed, still boarded up. Whatever stock that wasn’t looted has been sold online.
Do you really think these storefronts are coming back? Even if the beneficent dictator of NYC allows them to open, with 25% customer capacity and ridiculously paranoid levels of isolation and plexiglass protection inside the stores? Somehow, I kind of doubt it.
Greatest city in the world, killed by policy in half a year. This was not an accident.
on 08/17/2020 at 09:11 AM
Crime • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Economics • Pandemic Pandemonium • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
Very Funny Officer
So I got another ticket yesterday. Me and my red car manage to get pulled over a couple times a year. Yes, I’m an inveterate speeder, but I do it properly. I don’t tailgate, I don’t cut people off, I use my turn signals, I almost pass anyone on the right, and of course my car is in perfect working order and my papers are current. And I don’t go flying around corners on two wheels, or anything close to reckless driving. I’m just an impatient driver, like everyone else in the state.
In NJ, everyone speeds. Everyone. Nearly everywhere. The only place we make up for it is in those 25mph zones near schools, parks, and downtown. People generally do about 17 in those.
NJ has a scheme in place on the highways. They “let” you drive 65mph, but fines are doubled. Should there be a traffic cone by the side of the road, or a permanent sign saying that bit of highway is also a construction zone, fines are doubled again. So getting a speeding ticket on the highway can be a darn costly experience.
Generally, highway traffic moves at 75mph in good conditions, even in the slow lane, but on the weekends it flies. 85 is typical, 95 is not unheard of, with cars maybe two lengths apart traveling in packs.
And NJ keeps points for 5 years, with a big long list of how many points for whichever of the 65 or so moving violations they have. Get more than 6 in a 3 year period, and get an extra fine to pay. There are a fair number of 0 point offenses, but they are not on the list. Good luck trying to find them, although we all know that the seatbelt one and the red light camera one are no-pointers.
How many points are on your license? Like many other states, you have to pay the DMV to find this out. Gosh, wouldn’t you think that this would be part of their regular job? Available online for free, given that this is a microscopic database inquiry? Heck no.
But there’s a game involved. There are a good number of offenses that don’t have points. Just a fine. So most cops short circuit the plea bargaining process, and give you a break and just write you up for some 0 point offense. It puts donut money in their coffers, nobody wastes time going to court, an you just go online and pay the fine with your credit card.
So I got pulled over for doing 85 in a 65 zone on a demarcated highway. I wasn’t racing, or playing artful dodger, or zooming down the road alone. I was just cruising along with traffic. The Statey did his job in about 2 minutes and I was back on my way.
He wrote me up for the 0 point offense of Delaying Traffic.
Haha, very funny.
Saturday - August 15, 2020
Rhubarb !!!
She came home from work with an armload of rhubarb that a coworker had brought in from their garden.
I haven’t had rhubarb in ... probably 45 years. Pretty sure my parents used to grow it in the vegetable garden, but that’s loooong ago in the past.
So we’re making strawberry rhubarb pie, and, since we have so much of the stuff, we’re making a strawberry rhubarb crumble as well. Both are a great excuse to get hold of some good vanilla ice cream.
Rhubarb has an unusual taste, but it’s one that I’ve always loved. Can’t wait to get to baking things up and trying them out. Might even have enough to send her to work Monday with another crumble.
~~~~
Oh goody, and I guess I’d better go look outside. Amazon says my copy of Law of Nations and John Locke’s Two Treaties of Government were delivered today. Along with my new Solo 2L hand sprayer, as the old one died after a decade of use.
Fauci Gets One Right
Fauci: Voting In Person OK If Social Distancing Done
Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser for the White House coronavirus task force, said this week that there is “no reason” Americans are not able to vote in person for the 2020 presidential election in November.
Fauci emphasized that voting in person would not need to be avoided as long as voters followed CDC guidelines and maintained social distancing.
“I think if carefully done, according to the guidelines, there’s no reason that I can see why that not be the case,” Fauci told ABC News. “If you go and wear a mask, if you observe the physical distancing, and don’t have a crowded situation, there’s no reason why shouldn’t be able to do that.”
Fauci noted, however, that those who are at high-risk if exposed to coronavirus or have a compromised immune system should stay indoors and use mail-in voting.
OK, 99% right. I think most absentee ballots should be dropped off well ahead of time at the polling centers, logged in, and signed for ... once proper ID and voter registration is checked. The USPS is highly leftist, so I would not trust them too much.
Friday - August 14, 2020
toldja so
As reliable as the coming dawn, the willfully stupid and the left biased media and “the experts” have once again yelled real loud to subvert the proper understanding of the law. And that noise will do the job.
I said it yesterday: This application of the Constitution will be ignored and denied by the media and everyone else. Because “birthers”. People are so terrified of being called a name that they are willing to ignore the law, the history of the law, and the true meaning and intent of the law. That’s beyond sad. It’s beyond cowardly. It’s apathetic, pathetic, and bathetic.
And here it is.
Trump slammed for not rejecting conspiracy theory Kamala Harris is ineligible for vice presidency
Biden campaign calls Trump comments ‘abhorrent’
That’s right; it’s a conspiracy theory. And he’s abhorrent. Because he referred to a statement made by somebody about the natural born issue, and then said he didn’t know if that was correct or not. So slam him for even implying that this could be a problem.
And then the lies come out by the bucketful. And the overwhelming noise of indignation and implicit raycis drown out the truth, once again. We are totally fucking doomed.
President Trump would not reject a conspiracy theory Thursday that Kamala Harris is ineligible to serve as vice president because her parents were born outside the United States.
Asked about the unfounded and widely refuted claims during a press briefing at the White House, Trump responded, “I heard it today that she doesn’t meet the requirements” before adding, “I have no idea if that’s right.”
Harris is a United States citizen born in California in 1964, making her eligible to serve as president or vice president under the Constitution. [ Fox you are wrong ]
However, a professor of law at Chapman University, John C. Eastman, wrote a piece for Newsweek this week after she was named to the Democratic ticket questioning whether Harris is a “natural born citizen” because her mother was born in India and her father was born in Jamaica.
[ Editor’s note: Some readers reacted strongly to this essay, seeing it as an attempt to ignite a racist conspiracy theory. ]
...
The fact that Senator Kamala Harris has just been named the vice presidential running mate for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has some questioning her eligibility for the position. The 12th Amendment provides that “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.” And Article II of the Constitution specifies that “[n]o person except a natural born citizen...shall be eligible to the office of President.” Her father was (and is) a Jamaican national, her mother was from India, and neither was a naturalized U.S. citizen at the time of Harris’ birth in 1964. That, according to these commentators, makes her not a “natural born citizen"—and therefore ineligible for the office of the president and, hence, ineligible for the office of the vice president.
Newsweek also ran a counter essay by noted lawyer Eugene Volokh. IMO, as its typical for greasy lawyers, and all lawyers are greasy because the law is merely a tool to them, and not something held sacrosanct, Volokh makes his counter from the wrong direction. He’s throwing shade and puffing smoke, and emphasizing aspects that have no real bearing. Argument by non sequitur.
Some people have argued that Kamala Harris is ineligible to be vice president of the United States. The Constitution requires presidents and vice presidents to be “natural-born citizens”; Harris was born in the U.S., but her parents (who had come to the U.S. to study) weren’t U.S. citizens at the time. Does “natural-born citizen” include Harris, and others like her?
It does. “Natural-born citizen” was a familiar legal phrase to the Framers—an adaptation of the English term “natural-born subject.” Sir William Blackstone, an English treatise writer who (in Justice Scalia’s words) was “the Framers’ accepted authority on English law and the English Constitution,” explained:
Natural-born subjects are such as are born within the dominions of the crown of England, that is, within the ligeance, or as it is generally called, the allegiance of the king. ...The children of aliens, born here in England, are, generally speaking, natural-born subjects, and entitled to all the privileges of such.
It’s possible that “natural-born citizen” has since been broadened to include children of U.S. citizens born overseas (a 1790 Act of Congress specified that, “The children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural-born citizens").
He is wrong. It is not an adaptation of natural born subject, even though natural born citizen shares two of the three words with the other concept. Oh, and that 1790 Act was overturned in 1795, which he fails to mention. Even the best lawyer is a weasel dick. They argue for or against a topic. Searching for and declaring the actual truth has nothing to do with it.
What is a natural born citizen? It is someone born in this country whose parents are already citizens of this country. Period. Full stop. And that’s all there is to it.
I am a natural born citizen because I was born in this country and both my parents were born here as well, and their parents were citizens when they were born which thus made them natural born citizens. All my grandparents were born here too, although one of them might not have qualified as natural born because her parents came here from Germany, and I have no idea who things worked in the 1890s and I don’t know if they were naturalized citizens by the time granny popped out. But that was generations ago, so it isn’t germane.
It seems we go through this every presidential election cycle. I think what is needed is a SCOTUS decision. And that will never happen, because an honest decision, true to original intent would also torpedo the anchor baby concept that’s been around for 4 decades now. And probably squash the legality of dual citizenship too. And we do not have brave, honest, true Americans on the Supreme Court who are willing or able to make bold, proper decisions. Without the slightest doubt in my mind, this should be a 5 minute, 9-0 decision, made for clarification purposes alone - not delayed forever until some case with standing worms it’s way upwards.
I’m going to add this to my list of life truths:
• Sulfur is properly spelled sulphur.
• Eohippus is the Dawn Horse. No other taxonomy name is correct. There is no relation to the rock hyrax, so putting the original horse in the order Hyracotherium was a mistake.
• The big long dinosaur was a brontosaurus
• A shark is not a fish, dammit, it is an elasmobranch. Real fish have scales, gill pumps, and a swim bladder. Creating a new intermediate order called “bony fishes” to include both is cheating, especially if you don’t also include dolphins who, by that redefinition should also be fish. Fish who are mammals. No, this is wrong.
• Ok, I now grudgingly nearly accept that Pluto is not an actual planet, “merely” a dwarf planet or planetoid, because somebody either moved the definition goalposts or because science has advanced enough to go there and find out how big the thing actually is. Pluto 1473 miles across, 2/3 the size of our moon. Mercury still counts as a planet. Mercury is 1516 miles across, a whopping big 43 miles larger. Oh puh-lease. So my grudgingly is very grudgingly. OTOH, given that Pluto has 5 moons, one moon called Chiron which is half the size of Pluto, perhaps it should be called a double planet or a multi-planet.
• A natural born citizen is someone who is born within the desmenses of a country and both of whose parents are already citizens of that country.
I got so worked up about this yesterday I went out an bought a copy of Law of Nations, and while I was at the digital bookstore I got a copy of the writings of John Locke.
on 08/14/2020 at 10:43 AM
Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Stoopid-People • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
Thursday - August 13, 2020
Of course she isn’t, but you’re uninformed and intellectually lazy so she’ll get away with it
Here we should be going again with the natural born citizen thing. And just like Obama, Kamala Harris does not qualify as such. Not that most anyone else can understand the concept, or knows that it is very important to care about this and why. So should be going won’t even get off the ground. This will not even be brought up in passing, much less discussed, debated, and ruled on. It. Does. Not. Exist. Because ... raycis!!!
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
14th Amendment, Section 1, 1868
It is abundantly clear that “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” means exclusively subject to the jurisdiction thereof, which means not in any way beholden to the whims or powers of a foreign government. This was clearly understood by all until fairly recently.
Yes, she was born in the USA. Neither of her parents were citizens at the time. This makes her an anchor baby. According the the 14th Amendment, anchor babies are not citizens. This isn’t a “strict” reading of the amendment, it is a plain reading thereof. Original intent is easy to find in the Congressional Record of the day. The only “reason” that they are considered such these days is due to a single footnote in the 5-4 1982 SCOTUS decision Plyer v. Doe, added to the majority opinion by Justice Brennan:
“no plausible distinction with respect to Fourteenth Amendment ‘jurisdiction’ can be drawn between resident aliens whose entry into the United States was lawful, and resident aliens whose entry was unlawful.”
This weakening of the meaning of jurisdiction within the 14th - that it sees the term as meaning subject to the laws of this nation, and not solely subject to those laws (ie not being also subject to the laws of some other country, as is the legal situation of illegal immigrants) - was a part of the Plyer case, which dealt with Texas’s claim that school funding should not be granted to illegal immigrant children. And of course, Brennan’s footnote comment overlooks that such illegals have no right to be here at all.
Right.
Harris’ parents were a citizen of India and a citizen of Jamaica. While she herself was born in California, and shortly thereafter went to Canada, where she spent nearly all her formative years, she qualifies as a citizen by the anchor baby misconception. Being a citizen does not make you a natural born citizen.
The entire concept of natural born citizen comes from a French book called The Laws of Nations, which was written in 1758 and is the only book or exterior document referenced in the US Constitution. It was used extensively by the Framers, far more than the code of English Common Law, which they strongly felt did not apply to the USA, although they borrowed large parts of it ... as our own law. Anyway, in The Laws of Nations it says:
“Les naturels, ou indigenes, sont ceux qui sont nes dans le pays, de parens citoyens”
A direct translation is “The natural, or indigenous, are those who are born in the country, of parents who are citizens”.
While there was an 1797 update to the english version of the book, which clarified that line to read “The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens.”
This is a rather strict definition. To be a natural born citizen, you need to be born here and both your parents need to be citizens when you are born. Not just born here, and not with just one parent a citizen, regardless of where you were born.
Later extensions to the concept allowed “here” to include territories of the country (eg Guam and Puerto Rico), areas controlled by the country (eg military bases), land considered part of the country that was in other countries (eg consulates and embassies), and things controlled by the government of the country (eg military aircraft and ships that happen to be outside the confines of the country at the moment of birth). This is how John McCain, born at a military base in another country, was deemed a valid candidate.
[ “naturels” is the masculine form of the word, “naturelles” is the feminine form. French is so sexist, but both words mean the same thing. ]
Merely being born to two citizen parents is insufficient. Merely being born within our country is insufficient. This is a precise and sharply focused concept, and about the only time it every applies is when someone is considering running for President or Vice President, although it should probably apply to any elected representative who could possibly be in the chain of succession.
This application of the Constitution will be ignored and denied by the media and everyone else. Because “birthers”. People are so terrified of being called a name that they are willing to ignore the law, the history of the law, and the true meaning and intent of the law. That’s beyond sad. It’s beyond cowardly. It’s apathetic, pathetic, and bathetic.
Read more if you want, in great detail with clear explanations of case law over the years, plus how we’ve now been lead astray, when and by whom:
on 08/13/2020 at 11:25 AM
Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
Wednesday - August 12, 2020
Walter White Moved To Holland?
Dutch police have uncovered what they described as the biggest cocaine laboratory ever discovered in the Netherlands, leading to the arrest of 17 suspects from Colombia, Turkey and the Netherlands.
The drug lab was hidden at a former horse riding school in Nijeveen, some 75 miles from Amsterdam, police said in a statement Tuesday.
Police raided the riding school on Friday, discovering tens of thousands of liters of chemicals and 220 pounds of crack cocaine. Sleeping quarters and recreation areas were also found at the site.
The facility was equipped to produce up to 440 pounds of cocaine a day, officials said.The facility was equipped to produce up to 440 pounds of cocaine a day, officials said. (Politie Landelijke Eenheid)
“This is the largest cocaine laboratory ever found in the Netherlands,” police chief Andre van Rijn said in the statement.
Van Rijn said the lab was equipped to produce 330-440 pounds (150-200 kilograms) of cocaine a day, with a street value of $5.3-9.4 million (4.5-8 million euros).
TLH? Typical Leftist Hypocrites
This sounds like it could be one of those urban legends.
How Dare You!!
An anonymous poster on Reddit’s “Am I the A--h---” subreddit said he started a meat-eating club at his job in response to a coworker’s vegan-only club.
He claimed that one of his colleagues started a vegan dinner club exclusively for their coworkers following a vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian diet. Other coworkers “will not be able to join the club,” the poster said the group’s “statement of purpose” read.
In response, the poster claimed that he and some other meat-eating coworkers started a burger and steak club to go out and try new restaurants each week. They only allowed meat-eaters to join. However, members of the vegan club filed a complaint with the company’s human resources department.
Tuesday - August 11, 2020
Biden Picks Kamala Harris For VP
I can’t. I just can’t.
And Fox’s headline ... OMG ... “Biden taps Kamala Harris as running mate”. Heels up!
Kamala Harris, the politically shrewd California senator with a law enforcement background that has caused some tensions with the progressive left, was announced Tuesday as Joe Biden’s running mate.
She makes history as the first Black woman to serve as a major political party’s VP pick. The Biden campaign said Biden and Harris will deliver remarks together on Wednesday in Wilmington, Delaware.
“I’ve decided that Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to Donald Trump and Mike Pence and then to lead this nation starting in January 2021,” Biden said in an email to supporters.
Biden also tweeted: “I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate.”
He added: “Back when Kamala was Attorney General, she worked closely with Beau. I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign.”
The Trump campaign also released a statement from Katrina Pierson, a Trump 2020 senior adviser, that said: “In her failed attempt at running for president, Kamala Harris gleefully embraced the left’s radical manifesto, calling for trillions of dollars in new taxes and backing Bernie Sanders’ government takeover of health care. She is proof that Joe Biden is an empty shell being filled with the extreme agenda of the radicals on the left.”
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of you. Politico made the call at the beginning of the month, and many others had figured out that from Biden’s limited field of choices, seeing how his search was utterly sexist and racist in demanding a black woman, this one was the least atrocious of a stupefyingly horrible bunch.
on 08/11/2020 at 03:56 PM
Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
Feral Child Killers
The Little White Kid Next Door
A five-year-old boy is dead after a Wilson, North Carolina, man reportedly ran up to the child while he was playing in a neighborhood street and fatally shot the child in the head. According to a report from WRAL-TV, the shooting took place on Sunday.
Cannon Hinnant was playing outside his father’s house on the dusky summer evening when their neighbor — 25-year-old Darius N. Sessoms — charged Cannon, produced a handgun, and shot him in the head.
The child’s seven-year-old and eight-year-old siblings witnessed the murder.
First responders came to the scene and transported the little boy to Wilson Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Doris Labrant, a neighbor, said she witnessed Sessoms running up to Cannon, putting the gun to his head, and firing the weapon before fleeing the scene into his own home.
...
Authorities took Sessoms into custody on Monday night and charged him with first-degree murder.
“5 yr old Cannon Hinnant was executed in front of his sisters for accidentally riding a bike on his neighbors lawn,” producer and director Robby Starbuck posted. “There’s no pain our justice system can impose on his killer Darius Sessoms that‘ll equate to justice. CNN & MSNBC haven’t even covered it.”
on 08/11/2020 at 01:45 PM
Crime • Racism and race relations • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
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